Nile Gardiner is a Washington-based foreign affairs analyst and political commentator. A former aide to Margaret Thatcher, Gardiner has served as a foreign policy adviser to two US presidential campaigns. He appears frequently on American and British television, including Fox News Channel, BBC, and Fox Business Network.

Why French socialists love Barack Obama

I’ve often described Barack Obama as a European-style politician. He has the kind of big government mindset that would fit comfortably in Brussels or Paris. If he had been born in Provence instead of Hawaii, I’m sure he would have gravitated to the Elysee Palace or challenged Herman Van Rompuy for the presidency of the European Council. He has been the most Eurofederalist of American presidents, actively backing the European Project – to the extent that his vice president, Joe Biden, even declared Brussels to be “the capital of the free world”.

It is not hard to see why Francois Hollande, the Socialist Party leader, draws inspiration from Mr Obama. According to The Guardian, Hollande told reporters that he and Obama "have the same advisers," figuratively speaking:

Hollande brushed aside the fears of the political right in London that he would be dangerous for the City. He said he was not "aggressive", nor seen in France as very leftwing, and his drive to regulate finance was no more than Barack Obama's keynote speech to Congress. "You could say Obama and I have the same advisers." He said his stance on further regulation for the financial sector was in line with "public opinion" in Europe and was similar to all other French presidential contenders, including the rightwing Nicolas Sarkozy.

It is a bad sign when French politicians express admiration for an American president’s policies. Such praise does not indicate a shift in Gallic thinking, but rather recognition that the White House has adopted the kind of extreme, anti-free market approach that the French Left finds palatable. Paul Roderick Gregory argues that “in a side-by-side comparison" of Mr Obama and Mr Hollande are "difficult to differentiate". Then Gregory cites 11 areas where Mr Obama's and Mr Hollande’s ideas intersect. These include stimulus spending, raising taxes and demonising big business. Hollande has even borrowed Mr Obama's electioneering tactics.

For the French Left, President Obama is the acceptable face of the United States – a class warrior who backs the redistribution of wealth, stands shoulder-to-shoulder with the unions and attacks big business. If Hollande wins the presidential race, expect a warm relationship between the French Socialists and the “progressive” big government Obama administration. The former looks to Washington for support in its calls for larger Eurozone bailouts.

Barack Obama may well have found himself a new best friend in Europe – one that backs a crippling 75 percent top-rate tax, and will need the support of the French communists to secure victory over Nicolas Sarkozy in the second round.